The Dallas Mavericks’ championship victory Sunday night triggered the
start of a deadline for the Blazers to tender an $8.8 million qualifying
offer to the soon-to-be free agent center. The Blazers, who did not
extend an offer Monday, have until June 30 to do so.

Assuming they do — and the Blazers have given indications they will —
Oden will become a restricted free agent on July 1, which means the
Blazers will have the upperhand in resigning the former No. 1 overall
draft pick who’s brief NBA career has been marred by injuries and
surgeries.

It’s common for teams to delay extending qualifying offers until the deadline nears, so it was not a big shock that the Blazers did not make a move Monday. Even Oden’s camp did not expect it.

]]>http://www.basketballtraderumors.com/the-greg-oden-clock-starts-ticking-for-the-trail-blazers/feed/0Trail Blazers will sign center Steven Hill to training camp contracthttp://www.basketballtraderumors.com/trail-blazers-will-sign-center-steven-hill-to-training-camp-contract/
http://www.basketballtraderumors.com/trail-blazers-will-sign-center-steven-hill-to-training-camp-contract/#respondMon, 11 Oct 2010 15:03:48 +0000http://127.0.0.1/wordpress71/?p=1141The Trail Blazers plan to sign center Steven Hill to a training camp
contract in an effort to fortify their injury-depleted frontcourt,
according to a source close to the situation.

The 7-foot Hill, who played on the Blazers’ summer league team in 2008
and briefly with the Oklahoma City Thunder during the 2008-09 season,
was traveling to Portland Sunday afternoon and the parties were
optimistic that Hill would be available to play Monday night, when the
Blazers host the Utah Jazz in a preseason game.

The Blazers developed a need for a center Thursday night, when Jeff Pendergraph tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee in a game at Utah. Hill, who had been working out privately, was not part of a training camp roster, so the match is perfect.

]]>http://www.basketballtraderumors.com/trail-blazers-will-sign-center-steven-hill-to-training-camp-contract/feed/0Trail Blazers: Two teams interested in Blazers' Monty Williamshttp://www.basketballtraderumors.com/trail-blazers-two-teams-interested-in-blazers-monty-williams/
http://www.basketballtraderumors.com/trail-blazers-two-teams-interested-in-blazers-monty-williams/#respondSun, 09 May 2010 08:18:57 +0000http://127.0.0.1/wordpress71/?p=1007 Blazer assistant coach Monty Williams has attracted the attention of
two teams looking for a head coach.

Philadelphia will reportedly interview Williams Monday and New Orleans will meet with Williams soon after he exits his interview with the 76ers. Williams is considered a strong candidate for the job in New Orleans.

The 76ers are looking for a new coach after firing Eddie Jordan after one season. The Sixers have reportedly met with former 76ers star and current TNT analyst Doug Collins and with former Dallas Mavericks coach Avery Johnson.

New Orleans dumped Byron Scott early during the regular season and interim coach Jeff Bower returned to his general manager duties. The Hornets have met with Johnson, Dallas assistant coach Dwane Casey, former Cleveland coach and current TNT analyst Mike Fratello.

Williams interviewed with Minnesota last season before the Timberwolves hired Kurt Rambis.

About a week or so ago, reports surfaced that Portland is interested in
Mark Warkentien, the Nuggets vice president of basketball operations,
becoming its next general manager.

Currently, Kevin Pritchard is the Trail Blazers’ general manager. But
after team president Tom Penn was recently fired, Warren Legarie — agent
for Miller and Pritchard — openly wondered if his other Trail Blazers
client was next.

It’s an odd story, rife with everything from controversy to a conspiracy theory that Warkentien himself has a hand in what might happen to Pritchard. Warkentien denies any involvement, by the way. But that’s not nearly the point of this piece.

The point is it would be extraordinarilybad for the Nuggets if he were to go.

Portland isn’t the only team interested in Warkentien. He is the single most-wanted free agent in the Nuggets’ organization right now, and the team should take the necessary steps to keep him.

As he works on others’ contracts, Warkentien has no contract of his own beyond this season. He is one of the least-paid professionals in the NBA in his position. But he has been the backbone of what the Nuggets are right now — a team among the league’s elite with a shot at winning an NBA title. He is the reigning league executive of the year.

He’s proven he can find talent to improve the Nuggets, even with financial constraints in play. When Dahntay Jones left for more money, he traded for Arron Afflalo. The Chauncey Billups trade was the big prize, but the smaller acquisitions (Johan Petro and Renaldo Balkman via trade; Ty Lawson via draft; Chris Andersen and Anthony Carter via signing) are the ones that have helped the team thrive and survive when key players have gone down. Warkentien constantly travels to watch future talent. He was a fixture at NBA Development League games in Broomfield.

Might be a good time for Kevin Pritchard to wipe his computer hard
drive clean. And he should probably get a second cellular telephone for
non-business calls, and also, be careful who he talks to about his
future as the Trail Blazers general manager.

Note to KP: Watch your back.The people who work at Vulcan Inc. are busy working behind the scenes again with owner Paul Allen’s basketball operation, and those following the curious firing of vice president Tom Penn this week are looking at Pritchard wondering if his shelf life as the franchise Golden Boy is expiring.

"They can’t do Kevin in the middle of the season, but they can do a drive-by on someone close to him," said Warren LeGarie, the agent for Penn and Pritchard. "But guess who would be next?"

The message from One Center Court has been a consistent: "Philosophical differences," and the Vulcans are apparently steamed because they believe Penn bluffed the Blazers into a promotion and raise 10 months ago using a phantom offer from Minnesota.

The Portland Trail Blazers had a difficult decision to make a few years
ago when they had the No. 1 pick in the 2007 draft: Should they take
Greg Oden or Kevin Durant?

After making Oden the top pick that year, the Blazers now have another
tough decision. For how long, and for how much, are they willing to
invest in Oden?

After two major injuries have limited the former Ohio State star to just 82 games over three seasons, it could be prudent to ask if Oden will ever be the player the Blazers — and everybody else in the league, for that matter — thought he would be. And if he is not, how long do the Blazers disillusion themselves into thinking he will be?

After all, these are not mundane injuries that Oden has suffered. He played zero games his first year in the league because he had microfracture surgery on his right knee. In his second season, Oden sustained a foot injury in his first game that kept him out for two weeks, then chipped his kneecap when he collided with Golden State’s Corey Maggette. He appeared in 61 games overall.

And just as Oden was beginning to play this season at the level the Blazers anticipated, he broke that left kneecap without even getting hit on Dec. 5 against Houston. He is expecting to miss the rest of the season (though Oden said last week that he hoped to return for the playoffs).

It appears as if Oden is a bust, the calamity of untimely injuries derailing his career before it even got started, the second coming of Sam Bowie, whose body betrayed him — and the Blazers — in the same fashion in the ’80s. But the Blazers don’t view Oden as the next Bowie, the player taken ahead of Michael Jordan in the 1984 draft, a time when Portland already had Clyde Drexler and did not want to duplicate the position.http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/writers/frank_hughes/03/12/oden/index.html

Trail Blazers general manager Kevin Pritchard on Friday said the Trail
Blazers are involved in trade talks regarding acquiring a big man.

"We’re having discussions,” Pritchard said. "But so is the whole league.”

The NBA trading deadline is noon Pacific time on Feb. 18 and the Blazers are in the market for a center or a power forward to help with a front line that has lost centers Greg Oden and Joel Przybilla, forcing power forwards Juwan Howard and LaMarcus Aldridge to play center.

"I like the way L.A. and Juwan have been playing,” Pritchard said. "But if we have an opportunity to get a player, we will do it.”

The Blazers are roughly $1.2 million under the cap, allowing them to make a financially uneven trade, or take on a player with that much salary without having to send out a player in return. However, if they don’t take a player back, the Blazers would have to cut a player because they have the NBA-maximum 15 players under contract.

I don’t think there’s any question Portland needs another big man,
preferably a power forward but possibly a backup center. And to get
one, you have to give up something.

Multiple sources in the NBA have told me that Jerryd Bayless seems to
be the most available player on Portland’s roster. A couple of sources
indicated over the weekend that Bayless has asked the team to trade
him, because of his lack of playing time. I wouldn’t blame him — young
players want, and need, to play. And if he wants out, the team should
try to accommodate him.

Bayless has begun to see more action lately, but you have to wonder — is that being done to help teams get a better look at him? A showcase? I mean, how can you ask a lot for Bayless when he’s not even playing significant minutes for you? If I’m sitting in another NBA office and the Trail Blazers are asking me if I want Bayless, I’m going to have to answer, “Why would I want somebody you don’t think is good enough to play for you guys?”

Even with Bayless as bait, I’m not sure what the Blazers could get in return. On Dec. 15, Andre Miller can be traded and I think he would be a better trade piece. Miller is more respected around the league than he seems to be in Portland. Somebody might be willing to bite on him.

That third one is how many here are viewing Portland’s dysfunctional season.

Yes, the Trail Blazers have been hurt by injuries. And, yes, they’re
still a very young team. But Portland did go 54-28 last season to tie
Denver at the top of the Northwest Division (the Nuggets won the
tiebreaker for the right to hoist a banner). And even more was expected
this season out of the Trail Blazers.

It hasn’t been happening for this 13-8 outfit. So many are blaming the point guard who was Portland’s major offseason acquisition, but is coming off the bench behind Steve Blake. There have been rumors Miller, signed to a three-year, $21 million deal last July as a free agent, could be traded after becoming eligible Dec. 15.

"People are going to always point fingers, especially when you play one way last year and a new guy comes in and things change,” Trail Blazers shooting guard Brandon Roy said in an interview with FanHouse.

Roy agrees Miller has been made a scapegoat in Portland, but doesn’t believe that to be fair. Roy said comments he made last month that might have exasperated the situation were taken out of context.

"People are reading a little too much into things, and the comments when coach (Nate McMillan) went to a three-guard lineup (from Nov. 6-20),” Roy said. "I wanted to be a (shooting guard rather than a small forward) and people assumed that I wanted Blake to be the point and Andre out. And that wasn’t the case at all, I didn’t mind if Dre started or Blake. I wanted to be the (shooting guard).http://nba.fanhouse.com/2009/12/06/determined-miller-doesnt-want-trade/

The Portland Trail Blazers have verbally agreed in principle to a contract extension with forward LaMarcus Aldridge, a source close to the process told ESPN.com on Wednesday.The extension is for five years and $65 milliion and will go into effect next season, the source said.

If Aldridge achieves certain hard-to-reach incentives, his contract could ultimately be worth as much as $70 million.

The deal comes after a summer of angst between the Blazers and their two young potential free agents — Aldridge and Brandon Roy. The Blazers, after some verbal sparring, reached an agreement with Roy on a five-year, $80 million dollar max contract. Aldridge was searching for a similar contract from the Blazers but after several months of negotiation settled on a deal worth roughly $15 million less.

General manager Kevin Pritchard drafted both players in 2006 and they have become the centerpieces of the Blazers’ youthful, up-and-coming team.